Recent Publications

Latest Reports from IWPR

This report compiles existing data on women and patenting. It explores both women’s underrepresentation among patent holders and their relative success in being granted patents when they apply for them. The report identifies the technology classes that women are most likely to patent in, and examines the overall success of patents granted to women as measured by their assignment rates and citation counts. The report draws on the social science literature to identify major obstacles that women face to patenting and, based on the research findings, presents several recommendations to help to close the gender patenting gap. This report was funded by Qualcomm, Inc.

This report presents findings from a review and analysis of literature on the importance, effectiveness, and availability of support services for participants in job training programs in the United States. It assesses current knowledge about these services by examining reports on training and education programs, as well as literature on the importance of supportive services for low-income individuals in general. The report also examines the availability of supportive services in the workforce development system, funding sources for these services, and common barriers to employment and training—such as lack of access to child care, transportation, and stable housing—that these supports can address. The report was informed by interviews with 25 experts on workforce development and supportive services. It is a part of a larger Institute for Women’s Policy Research project on the role of supportive services in promoting job training and employment success that is funded by the Walmart Foundation.

This report investigates women’s experiences in large, low-wage, growing, female-dominated occupations, comparing demographic data and indicators of economic security between 1994 and 2014, and projecting growth rates to 2024. It focuses on 22 occupations fitting these criteria, and analyzes these jobs’ size and wages, racial and ethnic composition, share of parents and single parents, workers’ educational attainment, poverty rates and reliance on social assistance programs, and documents, where possible, how these indicators have changed between 1994 and 2014. The report also discusses the occupations’ projected growth between 2014 and 2024, and discusses public policy choices that could improve workers’ circumstances in the coming decades. The report is part of IWPR’s Employment and Job Quality initiative, and was funded by Oxfam America and the Ford Foundation. In collaboration with IWPR, Oxfam America produced a complementary report titled Undervalued and Underpaid in America: The Deck is Stacked against Millions of Working Women available at www.oxfamamerica.org.

The Economic Status of Women in New York State
by Yana Mayayeva, Cynthia Hess, Ph.D., Jessica Milli, Ph.D., and Julie Anderson M.A.
(November 2016)

This briefing paper assesses women’s economic status in New York state, drawing comparisons with other states in the Middle Atlantic region and the nation overall. It examines how women in New York fare on two composite indices—Employment & Earnings and Poverty & Opportunity—and their component indicators. (For more on these indicators and IWPR’s Status of Women in the States initiative, see Appendix I or visit www.statusofwomendata.org.) The briefing paper also considers how women’s status in New York has changed over the last decade, highlights differences across age and racial and ethnic groups, and identifies policy recommendations to further improve women’s status.

Hispanic Women Are Among Those Women Who Saw the Largest Declines in Wages over the Last Decade
by Asha DuMonthier
(October 2016)

Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) analysis of data from the American Community Survey finds that between 2004 and 2014, Hispanic women’s real median annual earnings for full-time, year-round work declined by 4.5 percent—nearly three times as much as women’s earnings overall.

If Current Trends Continue, Hispanic Women Will Wait 232 Years for Equal Pay; Black Women Will Wait 108 Years
by Institute for Women's Policy Research
(October 2016)

In advance of Latinas’ Equal Pay Day on November 1—the day symbolizing how far into the year that Latinas must work to earn what White men earned in the previous year—the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) released an analysis finding that, if trends over the last 30 years continue, Hispanic women will not see equal pay with White men until 2248, 232 years from now.

High School Girls and Violence 2015: A Chartbook
by Chandra Childers, Ph.D., and Asha DuMonthier
(October 2016)

This chartbook focuses on an area often ignored in discussions about the well-being of girls generally, and girls of color in particular—the alarming proportion of high school girls experiencing physical and sexual violence at the hands of schoolmates, friends, family members, and dating partners. This violence has long-term effects on girls’ lives, including degraded physical and mental health, limited educational success, increased chances of becoming entangled in the criminal justice system, and reduced long-term economic security (Hartmann et al., 2015, Riger et al. 2000, Saar, et al. 2015, Wider Opportunities for Women 2013). This chartbook relies on data from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) to provide a snapshot of the prevalence of violence in the lives of high school girls in the United States.

Domestic and dating violence, or intimate partner violence (IPV), is an unfortunately common reality that has short- and long-term negative effects on survivors’ economic security, and independence. Over one quarter (27.3 percent) of women in the United States have experienced sexual violence, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime, compared with 11.5 percent of men (Breiding et al. 2014). Survivors’ economic needs often drive them to stay with abusers longer, leading to increased economic abuse, injuries, and even fatalities (Washington State Domestic Violence Fatality Review 2012). In fact, 74 percent of survivors report staying with an abuser for economic reasons (Mary Kay Foundation 2012).

Girls and Young Women of Color: Where They Are in the United States
by Emma Williams-Baron and Elyse Shaw, M.A.
(October 2016)

Of the 14.1 million girls and young women of color, age 10–24, in the United States, 40.7 percent (5,748,760) live in the South, 23.2 percent in the Pacific West, 14.9 percent in the Northeast, 10.4 percent in East North Central, 7.3 percent in the Mountain West, and 3.5 percent in West North Central, as shown in Map 1.

Women of Color: Where They Are in the United States
by Emma Williams-Baron and Elyse Shaw, M.A.
(October 2016)

Of the 42.3 million women of color, age 18 and older, in the United States, 41.5 percent (17,537,563) live in the South, 23.2 percent in the Pacific West, 16.3 percent in the Northeast, 9.8 percent in East North Central, 6.4 percent in the Mountain West, and 2.9 percent in West North Central.

Job Growth Among Women Continues to Climb: 65 percent of Jobs Added in the 3rd Quarter of 2016 Went to Women
by Institute for Women's Policy Research
(October 2016)

The Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) analysis of the September employment report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) finds that women gained 56,000 jobs and men gained 100,000 jobs for a total of 156,000 jobs added in September, giving women 36 percent of job growth. In 2016, women’s job growth has exceeded men’s for three straight quarters in a row. In the third quarter of 2016 (July through September), women gained 65 percent (372,000 jobs) and men gained 35 percent (203,000 jobs) of all jobs added (575,000 jobs) in quarter three. Women gained 77 percent of all jobs in quarter one (January through March) and 84 percent of all jobs in quarter two (April through June). The overall unemployment rate increased slightly from 4.9 in August to 5.0 percent in September, reflecting more people entering the labor market to look for jobs.

The 79.6 percent wage ratio figure, the most commonly used figure to measure the gender wage gap in the United States, is often derided as misleading, a myth, or worst of all, a lie. In this fact sheet, we argue that the figure is an accurate measure of the inequality in earnings between women and men who work full-time, year-round in the labor market and reflects a number of different factors: discrimination in pay, recruitment, job assignment, and promotion; lower earnings in occupations mainly done by women; and women’s disproportionate share of time spent on family care, including that they—rather than fathers—still tend to be the ones to take more time off work when families have children. Just because the explanation of the gender wage gap is multi-faceted does not make it a lie.

The ratio of women’s and men’s median annual earnings was 79.6 percent for full-time/year-round workers in 2015. This means the gender wage gap for full-time/year-round workers is 20.4 percent. The ratio of women’s and men’s median annual earnings did not improve significantly during the last year, and has not seen a statistically significant annual increase since 2007. If the pace of change in the annual earnings ratio continues at the same rate as it has since 1960, it will take another 45 years, until 2059, for men and women to reach parity. Women’s median annual earnings in 2015 were $40,742 compared with $51,212 for men; both women’s and men’s full-time year-round earnings increased significantly between 2014 and 2015 (by 2.7 and 1.5 percent respectively).

Women’s Median Earnings as a Percent of Men’s Median Earnings, 1960-2015 (Full-time, Year-round Workers) with Projection for Pay Equity in 2059
by Institute for Women's Policy Research
(September 2016)

Native American Women Saw the Largest Declines in Wages over the Last Decade among All Women
by Asha DuMonthier
(September 2016)

Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) analysis of data from the American Community Survey finds that between 2004 and 2014, Native American women’s real median annual earnings for full-time, year-round work declined by 5.8 percent—more than three times as much as women’s earnings overall (Figure 1). Like Native American women, Black women and Hispanic women also saw their earnings fall substantially between 2004 and 2014, which includes the Great Recession and slow economic recovery (5.0 percent and 4.5 percent, respectively).

Breadwinner Mothers by Race/Ethnicity and State
by Julie Anderson
(September 2016)

With the large majority of U.S. mothers in the labor force and a steady decline in the real earnings of all workers over recent decades, families are increasingly relying on mothers’ earnings for economic stability. In the United States, half of all households with children under 18 have a breadwinner mother, who is either a single mother who heads a household, irrespective of earnings, or a married mother who provides at least 40 percent of the couple’s joint earnings. At the same time, women are more likely than men to shoulder unpaid caregiving responsibilities and many women, especially women of color, are more likely to be balancing work and care alone. The lack of work-family supports in the United States, such as paid sick days and paid family leave, coupled with the high cost of child care, places an additional burden on low-income women and women of color, who are the least likely to have employer-provided paid leave.

Child care is a crucial support for the 4.8 million parents in college, but it is difficult for students to find and afford. Balancing the responsibilities of school, family, and work, student parents with young children rely on affordable, reliable child care arrangements to manage the many demands on their time while pursuing a postsecondary credential. Student parents’ ability to find and pay for child care varies by state. Differences in the availability of child care on college campuses and in the restrictiveness of state eligibility rules for child care assistance means that many student parents have limited access to the services they need to complete school. This briefing paper analyzes data from the U.S. Department of Education on the share of public institutions that provide campus child care, and reviews current state child care subsidy rules, to assess state variation in the challenges facing student parents’ access to affordable, quality child care.

Black Women Are Among Those Who Saw the Largest Declines in Wages over the Last Decade
by Asha DuMonthier
(August 2016)

Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) analysis of data from the American Community Survey finds that between 2004 and 2014, Black women’s real median annual earnings for full-time, year-round work declined by 5.0 percent—more than three times as much as women’s earnings overall. Like Black women, Native American women and Hispanic women also saw their earnings fall substantially between 2004 and 2014, which includes the Great Recession and slow economic recovery (5.8 percent and 4.5 percent, respectively).

Strong Job Gains Continue with 255,000 Jobs Added in July
by Institute for Women's Policy Research
(August 2016)

The Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) analysis of the August employment report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) finds that women gained 181,000 jobs and men gained 74,000 for a total of 255,000 jobs added in July, giving women 71 percent of job growth.